Thursday, November 02, 2006

The Unit - Midge

* Warning: Spoilers *

I watched The Unit last night (I'm on TiVo, it's always a day late) and just rolled with laughter. If you have not watched The Unit yet, it concerns a special group within the military that conduct special operations. The show is a mix of what the soldiers themselves do on missions, and what the wives back home do.

In this episode, titled "Old Home Week," the wives are organizing a fund raiser to send calling-card minutes to troops overseas. At one point they come across a letter from WW-II of a soldier on his apparently last battle before he dies. The author, Jim, writes of his love to Midge as he contemplates that this may be the end.

The wives work to identify the letter writer and locate his wife, Margaret. They do this by finding a photo of Jim with another soldier that they identify and get an address for. BothMidge and the old soldier are brought in for the fundraiser.

The highlight of the fundraiser is to read the letter to those gathered, then present this last letter proclaiming his love to the wife.

But as the letter is being handed to her, the old soldier say "But I am Midge." A look of confusion across the crowd, and he repeats that he is Midge. Everyone is just left speechless!

I watched that and just rolled with laughter! The stunned look that everyone had was just priceless!

For a show that usually caters towards the macho, this is a pleasant surprise. It was good to see that the show was willing to touch on gays in the military, even if it did occur going all the way back to World War II. I will be interested in seeing if there is any follow on this particular instance, and/or whether the issue will be explored in more detail in future shows.